The Department of Housing and Urban Development will issue, in September, final rules to ease FHA requirements for financing condominium purchases and refinancings.
Federal courts have thrown out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s aggressive interpretation of anti-kickback provisions in the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. But plenty of questions remain about how new management of the agency will handle the issue or the fate of existing guidance on marketing service agreements, industry experts said this week.
The White House’s broadly phrased proposal to make Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac private corporations again and make explicit the government’s guarantee of their mortgage-backed securities caught industry observers by surprise.
The government-sponsored enterprises recently intensified efforts to help borrowers in rural areas qualify for a mortgage as part of their “duty-to-serve” markets where credit is scarce. Freddie Mac launched an employment program in high-needs regions and Fannie Mae has a new program targeting owners of manufactured homes.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson this week reiterated concerns about riskier FHA loans that could endanger the health of the program’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.
“There is potential for them to issue more guidance, and we hope it to be the right guidance that’s consistent with 40 years of the RESPA law,” said Kenneth Trepeta…
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